Gravity Rises (S3)

CW: Part Two

Mabel's breath caught in her throat as her hands lit up. Dark blue light suddenly encased her hands from the wrist down. On her right, she gripped Ford's hand, which glowed gold. Robbie's hand, which she held on her left, glowed white.

Everyone had a different color. But all the colors blended together to create a bright and beautiful symphony. Dipper, whose hands glowed a pinkish orange, grinned at Mabel; and though she was a bit scared, she found herself excited enough to grin back at him.

"It worked!" said Andrew. "The magic accepts you, Lee."

Grunkle Lee breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness." It was strange seeing him in Greg's body, but his voice was his own, as were his eyes.

"What now?" Ford asked.

"Well," Andrew said, "the prophecies refer to the Cipher Wheel as a single entity. The Symbols are talked about only until they form the Cipher Wheel, after which the Wheel is treated almost as its own person. There are ten of you, but the magic requires you all to be unified. Not just by physically touching, but by becoming one mind."

Mabel's eyes widened.

"What?" said Wendy. She let go of Pacifica's and Fidds' hands and stepped back. "No. No way."

The glow around the Symbols' hands disappeared as soon as Wendy let go. "What's the problem?" asked Andrew.

"'Becoming one mind'?" Wendy repeated. "I'm not giving up my mind. You're crazy."

Andrew let out a long breath, then reached up and tugged on one of his horns. Mabel wondered if that was his way of showing exasperation. "You're not going to lose your mind," he said. "It's not a permanent thing. But while you're standing in the Cipher Wheel, the ten of you have to work together to defeat Cipher. You have to — temporarily — let the magic unify your minds into one."

"How do we do that?" Gideon asked, shooting a glare at Wendy.

Mabel didn't think his glare was called for. Wendy had a legitimate concern. The thought of losing her identity. . . well, to Mabel, it was almost scarier than dying.

Still, even after Andrew's assurances that no identities would be lost, Wendy didn't seem thrilled to rejoin the Cipher Wheel. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at Andrew.

"Wendy," Ford said tersely, "this isn't about you. This is about getting rid of Bill Cipher. This is about getting Lee his body back, about getting this town back to its dimension where it belongs. Where we all belong."

"Please, Wen," said Robbie. He tried to meet her eyes from across the circle. "My dad let himself get possessed for this. We have to follow through with it."

Wendy didn't say anything for a long moment. Then, "Fine," she muttered. She took Pacifica's and Fidds' hands again.

The Symbols stood hand-in-hand once more, but the glow didn't come back right away. "So how do we unify our minds?" Gideon repeated.

"I'm not sure," Andrew admitted. "But if you all think about Bill Cipher and focus on how much you want to defeat him, maybe that'll do it."

"If you're not sure about that, then how can you be sure that we won't become brainless zombies after this?" Wendy demanded.

"The ancients wouldn't have made the spell like that," Gideon said, annoyance thick in his voice. "They did something to the township so that Mabel wouldn't lose too much of her life force, even after nine days of being up in her moon. If they were thinking ahead that far, I highly doubt they'd let the ten of us get hurt when activating the Cipher Wheel."